Teachers, save “Writing: Simple and Compound Sentences” to assign it to your class.

Teacher Notes (not visible to students)

This activity uses a short instructional video to teach first graders to identify simple and compound sentences. Students will practice finding the subject and predicate, choosing conjunctions, and recognizing when to add a comma before a conjunction that joins two full sentences. Prepare by reviewing subject and predicate with one or two examples on the board. Have sentence strips or simple printable cards ready for students who need hands-on sorting. For open-ended responses: a high-quality answer for the Think About It page shares a clear learning point from the video (for example: "I learned that a compound sentence joins two complete ideas with and or but") and a specific question (for example: "When do we use so?"). For the Show It page, a strong response shows a compound sentence created by the student using two complete ideas and a conjunction, or a clear drawing that labels the subject and predicate in two joined sentences. Teachers grade these as correct if the student demonstrates the ability to identify subject/predicate and uses an appropriate conjunction and comma when joining two full sentences; mark incorrect if these parts are missing or the conjunction/comma usage is incorrect.